I think that there is much more to this than Stuart's little sister just trying to push her book.

Here is an excerpt from a review of her book, in The Independent:

Quote

Pauline's infinitely more damning claim concerns an incident in Hamburg in Easter, 1961. Lennon, she says, "frustrated over the threat of losing Stuart and the tensions in the band" punched his best friend, who fell on to the pavement. "He had no time to protect himself. John was taken over by one of his uncontrollable rages: he lashed out at Stuart again and again, and kicked him in the head. Stuart was covered in blood by the time Lennon finally came to his senses. He looked down at Stuart and fled, disgusted and terrified by what he had done."

Pauline claims her brother told her about the incident and though it was another 11 months before he died of cerebral haemorrhage, doctors said there was an indent at the front of the skull as the result of a "trauma". Despite the attack, she says the two remained close friends and exchanged letters until Stuart's death.

yeah i heard that story b4 but who besides pauline tells it????john believed it too,there is at least an interview where he mentions it and yeah bob got a raw deal...lennon should have paid for that.....

I believe that Marnie Hair, a Dakota neighbor and mom of Sean's playmate, Kaitlin, talks about the 1961 Hamburg Stuart incident in the Goldman book. She claims to have heard the story from Yoko, when they were hangin' buddies.

Goldman also cited Jesse Ed Davis as a source for the Hamburg sailor mugging story that Pete Best also has spoken of.

This stuff is all so sordid. Let's just say that John had a really dark side (like Sinatra.)

I've got to say that John was my fave Beatle. I especially admire that he tried to face up to his demons (understand why he was so angry and deal with it), finally, by doing psychotherapy with Art Janov and trying to change his ways.